Whip Jones has become a
legend in Colorado as the builder and owner of internationally renowned Aspen
Highlands, one of the four great ski areas of Aspen. He first skied at Aspen in
1947 and within a few years had brought a house in town and moved in.

Aspen Highlands had its
beginning in 1956. Whip owned the land at the base of the mountain and became
interested in developing it after the Forest Service suggested it would be a
“great place for a ski area”. Whip first offered the opportunity to Aspen
Skiing Corporation who turned it down.

From then on it was full
steam ahead. He hired Dick Durrance to do a feasibility study and Fritz
Benedict to design a lodge. When the area opened in 1958 it had three lifts,
including the world’s longest single section double chairlift. Stein Erickson
was director of the ski school and later Fred Islin. Aspen Highlands soon
became known throughout Colorado as the affordable, laid-back ski area with the
longest vertical in the state.

Whip’s vision and
marketing ingenuity proved invaluable when he had to compete with the larger
Aspen Ski Corporation and its three-area ski ticket (Ajax Mountain, Buttermilk
and Snowmass). His innovative marketing lured many a skier to the Highlands
with the promise of fun. Many Coloradoans remember with nostalgia the wine and
cheese parties, Stein Erickson’s flips on skis and the opening of Steeplechase,
near the top of Loge Peak–a steep, avalanche-prone slope that gave expert skiers
a taste of adventure.

In 1992, after the
longest continuous ownership of any ski area in Colorado, Whip Jones donated the
Highlands stock to his Alma Mater, Harvard University. Eventually the Aspen
Skiing Company agreed to buy the area and today, Highlands is part of the
four-mountain Aspen ski complex under common management.

Whip Jones had made
lasting contribution to skiing in the state through his vision, hard work and
creative marketing. He was inducted into the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame in
October 2000. Whip Jones past away June 29, 2002 in Tallahassee, Florida. He
was 91.